Your favourite year in Metal

Siddharth

Siddharth

Long Distance Trooper
If you ask me, it is of course the year 1990. Some of my absolute favourite albums were released during the time. Actually the entire time period from 1989-90 is my favourite which saw the the culmination of 80s Metal. Pantera made an insane comback with Cowboys From Hell which in my opinion has been a MAJOR influence on modern Metal. Bands like Megadeth (Rust In Peace), Judas Priest (Painkiller), Death (Spiritual Healing) took drastic shifts in their sound and released some really iconic albums. Some even took a step back like, Maiden's No Prayer For The Dying, Queensryche continuing with their new found polished sound in Empire which has each song capable to be a hit, Testament's Souls Of Black and Seasons In The Abyss by Slayer also comes to mind. Some great sophomore records which were a step ahead of the artists's previous work like Twisted Into Form (Forbidden), Never, Neverland (Annihilator), Extreme II: Pornograffitti (Extreme). Thrash metal being at its technical most: Sanity Obscure (Believer), By Inheritance (Artillery), Into The Mirror Black (Sanctuary), hell even Anthrax released their musically more matured Persistence Of Time. Glam metal would reach it's peak with Ratt's Detonator album along with self-titled debuts by FireHouse, Spread Eagle. Talking about debut albums, Facelift by Alice In Chains is possibly the best from the said year. Also to mention The Eye by King Diamond which is considered a favourite among many fans. You get the idea, it had pretty much everything good about Metal all into one.
 
My favorite year in Metal is 1988 when I was able to buy my first albums and I was discovering other bands with my college mate and friend. Two Metal heads in the same class and the only ones in the Highschool. We're usually sharing tapes (pirate tapes bought to other Metalheads in the town) and recording tapes from vynils. That year I bought AC/DC - Blow up your video, Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Metallica's …And Justice for All and Anthrax - State of Euphoria. It was great year for metal music for me. It was the first time I wear a black t-shirt (Can I play with Madness) discovered Metal Hammer magazine (first one I bought was with Bruce on the cover just before the Seventh Son album release) filling the folder I had for study with spectacular pictures everywhere. The Metalhead jackets full of patches…

Talking about bands and Metal albums of that year…well it was an amazing year starting with Megadeth: So far so good so what album, Fates Warning: No Exit, Virgin Steele: Age of Consent, Riot: Thundersteel My Maiden's favorite album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force: Odissey, the long awaited album by Scorpions, after the live album from 1985 - Savage Amusement, the great Kings of Metal by Manowar, Crimson Glory's Transcendence, King Diamond: Them, Ozzy Osbourne: No rest for the Wicked, Stryper: In God we Trust, Voivod: Dimension Hatross, The Queensryche top album: Operation Mindcrime, Testament with their fantastic and my favorite album by them The New Order, Judas Priest with Ram it Down, Saxon's Destiny.
Metal from Germany featuring amazing bands like Blind Guardian's Battalions of Fear, Rage- Perfect Man, The glorious part 2 of Keeper of the Seven Keys by Helloween, Running wild with the great Port Royal, Tankard- The Morning After, Scanner fantastic Hypertrace album, Kreator with their terrific EP Out of the Dark Into the Light .
From USA thrash bands like Flotsam and Jetsam's great album No Place for Disgrace, Nuclear Assault with Survive album, Overkill's Under the Influence, Slayer with South of Heaven (I think it's their best one) Forbidden, Anthrax with State of Euphoria and their successful cover single Antisocial, Death Angel with Frolic Trough the Park, Leprosy by Death, Metallica with …And Justice for All (their last great album for me). And we cannot forget the shredders like Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn, Marty Friedman with Dragon's Kiss and both forming Cacophony and releasing Go Off album, Chastain with The Voice of the Cult, Vinnie Vincent Invasion's All systems go. The dark metal with Bathory - Blood, Fire Death and Candlemass with Ancient Dreams.

Don't forget Donnington with the record massive crowd and the Monsters of Rock Festival through Europe. It was the year which Maiden and Metal popularity reach their peak in Music.
 
For me it would come down to either 1984 or 1988. Since @The_7th_one made the case for 1988, let's talk 1984:

Bryan Adams - Reckless
Dokken - Tooth And Nail
Sammy Hagar - VOA
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith
Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Queensrÿche - The Warning
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Van Halen - 1984
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
Whitesnake - Slide It In

...and there's a bunch of other albums that probably matter to other people that I'm not even mentioning here (Venom, Saxon, Kiss, Metal Church, etc.).

That's a pretty killer line-up.
 
Jer said:
For me it would come down to either 1984 or 1988. Since @The_7th_one made the case for 1988, let's talk 1984:

Bryan Adams - Reckless
Dokken - Tooth And Nail
Sammy Hagar - VOA
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith
Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Queensrÿche - The Warning
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Van Halen - 1984
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
Whitesnake - Slide It In

...and there's a bunch of other albums that probably matter to other people that I'm not even mentioning here (Venom, Saxon, Kiss, Metal Church, etc.).

That's a pretty killer line-up.
Click to expand...
I would add Dio - The Last in Line , Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers,
 
This is a tough question for us nerds who like metal and music. In general for me, I really like the years between 1987-1993/1994, when lots of hard rock and heavy metal came up, and also other sub genres like Grunge, Alternative rock, black metal and power metal had a great development. Bands started to record music in better sounding studios and made more music due to CD’s were now the new standard with more minutes available that an LP. Also the years 2001/2002 had lots of great music in my opinion, but maybe it’s just me being 16-18 years old at the time, finding new great albums every month at my local record store, spending the few bucks I had available.

When it comes to metal releases in general, 1988 have the best releases overall I think. This list says it all:

Crimson glory - Transendece (their best)
Bathory - Blood fire death (very solid and groundbreaking
Iron maiden - Seventh son of a seventh son (not a favorite, but a very good one, Maiden at their most ambitious at the time)
Queensryche - Operation mindcrime (their best)
Helloween - Keeper of the seven keys part II (their best)
Manowar - Kings of metal (also their best)
Slayer - South of heaven (different, but great)
Metallica - And justice for all (different and very good, also one of my first albums I bought ever)
Anthrax - State of euphoria (also one of their best)
Candlemass - Ancient dreams (very good album)
Death - Leprosy (better than their debut)
Cacophony - Go off! (Good album)
Yngwie malmsteen - Odyssey (the best 80’s album by Yngwie)
Megadeth - So far so good so what (great album)
King diamond - Them (maybe their best)
Testament - The new order (their best album)
David Lee Roth - Skyscraper (Mosty hard rock, but I included it anyway. It is a good one)
Violence - Eternal nightmare (forgotten classic album)
Running wild - Ready for boarding/Port royal (one solid live album and one of their best studio albums)
Judas priest - Ram it down (underrated album, mostly good)
Pestilence - Malleus maleficarum (great debut album)

Lets forget Celtic frost - Cold lake. Blind guardians Battalions of fear have some good songs, but in my opinion their weakest album.
 
Almost all of the 80's - highlights: 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984(!), 1986 and 1988.

Then: 1990, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2024.
 
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